Posts Tagged ‘apocalypse’

Holidays with the Syndicate

Posted: 30th December 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Syndicate", Concepts & Development
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On the storytelling value of two post-apocalyptic factions, and why the Syndicate is so much fun to produce.

The holiday season is upon us, so in customary webcomic fashion Night Zero is taking one day off each week and wishing the best for you and yours in the new year. Our production schedule is winding down to make time for our next book release, due out in March for the fourth consecutive year. More details to come!

In the meantime, though, “Syndicate” works its way onward, with two weeks left in its run. Although brief, it’s a vignette I’m quite pleased with, particularly as a final “originette” backstory piece. The relationship between the Syndicate and the New City is one of the oldest elements of Night Zero lore, and today I’d like to talk about playing with the power balance and how writing factions into the world mythos created a different kind of post-apocalyptic comic.
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Trapped!

Posted: 19th August 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Inertia", "Jezebel", "Midnight", "Sorority", Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Concepts & Development
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On the theme of zombie stories with characters ‘trapped’ together, how the common motifs of these stories draw parallels to our experiences, and how Night Zero tries to avoid rehashing while continuing to explore this topic.

One of our favorite things to do in Night Zero storytelling, it seems, is to trap some people in a room in the midst of the zombie apocalypse and watch their relationships develop or collapse. We had first considered a “trapped” scene as early as Marion’s flashback in Episode One when her boyfriend comes home wounded, but in that case (for pacing reasons) we decided to jump straight into the action. So, our first true “trapped” story was our first vignette, ‘Jezebel’, and in the following years, we visited variations on this theme with the ‘Midnight’, twice over in ‘Inertia’, and now again in ‘Sorority’… not to mention the handful of unproduced scripts and treatments in our back-catalog, all addressing a small group of survivors stuck together in a collapsing world.
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Relationships and Origins

Posted: 1st April 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Inertia", Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Concepts & Development
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On the relationship origins of the “Inertia” vignette, and the upcoming origin vignettes.

In my previous blog post on the development of the “Inertia” vignette, I discussed how the story was conceived around the sudden relationship between two students on the night of the zombie apocalypse. In the early development stages, I tried many different variations: the age difference between the two characters, which character started with a better weapon, what kind of prejudices or respect each character held for the other.

True to the butterfly effect, changing just one aspect of the initial conditions started divergent paths that spiraled out into entirely different storylines. Some of the storylines I rejected because they shared too many similarities with stories we’ve already told, while others I rejected because they went in dark and unsettling directions.  Read the rest of this entry »

Students and Professors

Posted: 25th February 2011 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: "Inertia", Concepts & Development
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On the development history of the “Inertia” vignette, and how it came to be two tales side-by-side.

Unlike nearly every Night Zero vignette before it, the final product of “Inertia” is very, very close to the original concept from which it developed. The inspiration first came about when the production team moved in to shoot the military segment of Episode Five’s “Three Speeches,” in a mid-century building on campus at the University of Washington. Even though the scene itself had nothing to do with school or college personnel, seeing the environment prompted my brain churning. I wanted to visit the college campus on the night of the zombie apocalypse, and that’s where the vignette development began.

Some vignettes grow from a particular visual I want to actualize, some are inspired by a particular location I want to use, others by a particular actor I want to work with. My favorite vignettes, though, begin with a relationship, and grow into something from there. For “Inertia” that relationship was between two students, meeting for the first time as the world collapses around them.
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Stories and Secrets

Posted: 17th December 2010 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Concepts & Development, Episode 5 - "Reversals"
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On the development of Claire and Edge’s encounter with the Trio, and the unexplained backstory elements of the Night Zero apocalypse

Once again, I have the pleasure of welcoming a favorite character back to the Night Zero website. It’s been just over a year since we last saw Marion on our pages, which isn’t the longest character hiatus we’ve ever done but it’s still a good while… especially considering she appeared on every single page of Episode One and nearly every page of Episode Two.

This scene between the Trio and Claire/Edge goes back a long ways, to the earliest drafts of episodes four (and then five). Its primary purpose is rather straightforward—it needs only to bring the Claire/Edge arc back in line with the Nadia/Valentin arc, by way of Marion. Pairing the duo against the Trio provides a more interesting dynamic than them just making their way back to Nadia on their own, and the action (although brief) is a chance to shift the power balance a bit and give Claire some new strength.

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The Right to Peaceably Assemble

Posted: 4th June 2010 by Anthony van Winkle
Categories: Behind-the-Scenes Photos, Episode 4 - "Insecurity", On Location
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On the early concepts and location scouting for the protest shoot

I don’t recall exactly the expression he used at the time, but when Alexander first dropped hints of the plot developments in episode four it was in the form of grinned warnings: the story was taking a dire turn, and it wasn’t gonna be easy. I don’t even remember how long ago it was that these first bits of conversation came around, but already by January of 2009, when episode two was just halfway through production, the schedule was cognizant of the episode four “protest shoot” which would require the full resources of the entire Night Zero family. Looking back through conversations and emails, hardly a meeting goes by without a drop-in reminder of our upcoming challenge. As a writer, Alexander is entitled to be protective of his unfinished works and usually preferred to have complete drafts before sharing them, but in this situation we had numerous conversations over the first half of the year, well before the script was in full draft, to enable the pre-production work to incubate.
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